Well home fixture next Saturday 3.00pm..Bristol Rovers With about 8 teams all battling for automatic promotion or the play-offs..any side that loses is falling off the pace. Bristol Rovers mid table side... will be no pushover... Yesterday our defence won us the game, we have Bailey Wright injured so I presume Ozturk? Comes in. Somehow we have to score more goals, we cannot always keep clean sheets, can we?
Its squeaky bum time like at the top weve been on a cracking run but others are right at it too. Look at fleetwood game in hand and 3 points behind so we need to keep winning consistently.
I think we have the bit between our teeth now Sunders. I appreciate they will be no pushovers and indeed there is no pressure on them but I expect a win. All the other teams around us all have this pressure now. Still a lot off points to be won AND a lot of points to be lost. Not by the mighty SAFC though.
Bristol Rovers have won 1 in the last 15 games. This is a game we absolutely should be winning and I expect us to win.
My feeling is that we go out with a plan now. Everybody knows their job. When players start to look tired we have decent players to bring in. For all Oxford's periods of domination yesterday, McLaughlin didn't really have to do anyrhing spectacular. I think that Fleetwood, Rotherham and Boventry will fade. If Peterborough stop scoring goals they have problems. We can keep grinding out results and the goals will come. Also, I've got a strange feeling that Grigg will play his part as well.
Definitely not the match thread, I could not do it as well as the regular OP, but yesterday was yesterday..now I am focused on the next game...that is all that matters. We all recognise how tight the race now is in the turd division...we cannot afford to drop any points at home... Looking ahead a bit Coventry away is, as they say, MASSIVE, pity we do not have history with Coventry!
I'd take a Fleetwood win against Portsmouth, or even a draw, providing we beat Bristol, as we should tbh. A Fleetwood win would put us 4 points clear of Portsmouth, who are a bigger rival imo. Fleetwood play us next so we can put them back in their box, the same night that Coventry play Rotherham.
One thing I'm happy with is our performances at the moment. If we had these fixtures 10 games ago I wouldn't be very confident but we look solid and fit. Credit to the management and staff for that
Yesterday was frustrating with the weather but I think we'll play better against Rovers and have a good stab at getting all three points. Team look more organised and up for it lately.
Haven't heard much about him but he's been on loan in the non leagues so he must be one for the u23s. The fact he's with Burnley but has been allowed to come to us for a trial suggests he's coming to the end of his deal, isn't being kept and they're letting him try and find another club. Quite happy about it, we need to be bringing kids in and giving them a chance, especially since our own u23 side looks poor at present, but this lad will be a very long term prospect
We have another lad on the bench who could feature more, had only had a few minutes up till now. Whilst our defence had been superb (best in the league?) Goal Difference could be important the way the top 6 or 8 clubs are all bunched at the top. Ignoring his goal contribution Wyke is playing well, unfortunately for him, being a striker is 80% about scoring goals... I suspect we cannot do much about our goal tally in the run in, but we must continue to strive for clean sheets and, if my nerves can stand it , a run of 1-0 s is fine
Wyke's an odd one. I mean, he's not very good, let's just take that as read, but in a way he is important for us. If you don't have a striker who is going to bang them in, but you've got some decent attacking midfielders (Gooch and Maguire) who can chip in (and even Power occasionally) then your best bet is to make sure you can get them into positions. For that job Wyke is a decent option because he does occupy centre backs, he does work tirelessly (had a bit of a laugh there mind my phone auto corrected tirelessly to fruitlessly, either would have done I guess). As long as we're grinding out wins and our midfielders are chipping in, I doubt Parkinson will want to change it. I think Lafferty is a better striker, but still not going to score barrel loads, the question is whether he can do the rest of it. For what it's worth I think he can, and I think he'll get his chance before long (injury, form, simple fatigue) but Wyke is randomly a fairly important part of the way we play
1-0 victories still count 3 points so you have to take them , not all matches are going to be like Rochdale with the game won by halftime , the game was handy for us as we able to ease off and take a breather before we played Oxford . I would like to think it will be the same V Bristol Rovers in readiness for Fleetwood on Tuesday , the main thing is to take one game at a time and trust in Phil Parkinson , everyone was calling for changes but he knows the benefit of having a settled team and it’s paying off - why try to fix something that isn’t broken !
Looking at our home games we could win them all, 5 are winnable away. I say 80 points gets you up this season (6 points less to play for of course) 73 play off spot. 26 points out of 39 is doable.
Fatigue and injuries to key players that result from fatigue. Nobody wants to change the first team but we should be using subs more and rotating the team more as long as we can still play the same way.
I’d understand him sticking with wyke, but I’d like to see Lafferty from the start for this one. could easily be framed as keeping wyke fresh for the midweek game against fleetwood.
Players will be only doing light training on an ongoing basis I would reckon , players would rather be playing matches than training and their is a week between the Oxford and Bristol Rovers fixtures . Phil Parkinson and the coaching team will know if any of the team is in need of a rest and will react accordingly, the team is settled and they are used to each other’s style of play and even though the support players are to a decent standard IF needed why disturb the team needlessly . The management and team are doing well we need to put our trust in them .
